Good news for Dems in Virginia, bad news for House GOP at home, and President Obama

News to start your week off right, and your President Obama pic of the day to get you fired up and ready to go.

Welcome to a new daily series at Shareblue Media, providing you with links to important news, interesting stories, useful information about actions of resistance — and a picture of President Barack Obama to help get you through the day.

The governor's race in Virginia is getting mighty interesting for Democrats, as their candidate, Ralph Northam, is leading his GOP opponent 2-1 in the funding game:

In July and August, Northam raised $7.2 million, while [Ed] Gillespie took in $3.7 million in the same period.

That left Northam, the sitting lieutenant governor, with $5.6 million in cash to Gillespie’s $2.6 million as of Aug. 31, according to data released Saturday by the nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project.

Things are also about to get interesting for House Republicans, but not in a way they'll enjoy. Many of them are heading home this week, as the disastrous, semi-secret new effort to destroy health care coverage is still underway. Time to show up and speak out, folks!

Attorney General Jeff Sessions can’t follow through — at least for now — with his threat to withhold public safety grant money to Chicago and other so-called sanctuary cities for refusing to impose new tough immigration policies, a judge ruled Friday in a legal defeat for the Trump administration.

He said the city had shown a “likelihood of success” in arguing that Sessions exceeded his authority with the new conditions. Among them are requirements that cities notify immigration agents when someone in the country illegally is about to be released from local jails and to allow agents access to the jails.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel was clear about his disdain for Sessions' hateful gambit, noting that the ruling means "the Trump justice department cannot continue to coerce us into violating and abandoning our values."

Speaking of someone with garbage ideas, Betsy DeVos. Trump's Education secretary — a title that deserves air quotes — got a righteous smackdown of her own from a group of 39 Democratic members of Congress.

Led by Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Patty Murray of Washington, as well as Reps. Maxine Waters of California and Bobby Scott of Virginia, the group called on DeVos to reverse her dangerous decision to end an agreement on student loan protections made with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

In their letter, the group of lawmakers take DeVos to task for her "fundamental misunderstanding" of the authority of her department and that of other federal agencies. They offer a point by point takedown of DeVos' inaccurate assessments of the agreement and of the CFPB, and they note the crucial importance of the need to fully invest in higher education.

Our country’s investment in affordable higher education provides individuals with the skills they need to participate in the 21st century economy. Cooperative oversight of this investment in higher education helps to safeguard students, borrowers, and taxpayers ...

Students and borrowers cannot afford to see these protections rolled back. Cooperation between the Department and CFPB is in the best interest of students, borrowers, and taxpayers and the Department’s decision to abandon this partnership is contrary to its stated mission to "ease the burden for borrowers."

ICYMI, Shareblue Media's executive editor, Jess McIntosh, took to the airwaves twice to remind us all of two very important things. One: That Hillary Clinton has every right to speak her mind, and the majority of the country wants to hear what she has to say.https://vimeo.com/252554733

Two: That the Russia investigation is about to heat up even more, and the man about to testify before the Senate is someone you need to keep your eyes on:

https://vimeo.com/252554733

Shareblue Media Senior Writer Eric Boehlert made a couple key points of his own on MSNBC: Donald Trump is a pathological liar, and is nowhere near fit for the office. "You can't be presidential if you don't know anything!"https://vimeo.com/252554733

Because you deserve it, a bonus Obama pic, with a little trademark Pete Souza Shade thrown in for good measure, because mocking Trump's inanity is just necessary some days.

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